Government to set up innovation labs in every district: Smriti Irani

New Delhi: Innovation labs will soon be set up in every district for students to think of new ideas which will be funded by the government under an ambitious scheme to encourage research at both school and university level. The ambitious ‘Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyaan’ programme would see the setting up of innovation labs in all districts to enable students develop his or her ideas, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said today.

“These labs will be linked to the proposed council of higher education on industry academia collaboration so that those innovation which have potential to turn into great business do not die.” “We will start a fund which will support such innovations. It will be launched by the dawn of next year,” the minister said while speaking at a Microsoft event which was attended by the company’s CEO Satya Nadella who is on a maiden trip to India.

Irani said there were huge expectations from the youth of the country and that the government had planned several initiatives for their benefit. “Its youth that makes me nervous…We are anxious today because there are a huge expectations. We came in with a promise with a better tomorrow,” she said. The government also intends to scale up the employability potential of the youth as they have a lot of expectations from the BJP regime and has voted for it “decisively”, she said at the programme which was streamed live to 20 states, 300 cities and 750 locations.

To realise such objectives, she said her ministry has proposed to set up the council for higher education on industry academia collaboration. “Every central university, IIT and IIM, through their counselling cells will undertake initiatives where everyone can realise their dream of being a doctor, engineer, professor or a lawyer,” she said without elaborating any further. Drawing parallels between Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said they chased their dreams and their stories “signify a gamut of possibilities a young man can have”.